The world wide web has been a boon to well-informed consumers. Some consumers purchase goods and services over the web. Many more use the World Wide Web as a source of comparative shopping information. Pricing and other information difficult to obtain just a few years ago is now freely available.
As one non-limiting example relating to the new and used car market, a variety of web sites now offer detailed consumer information comparing the dealer's invoice cost against the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) printed on the window sticker of the vehicle. The National Automobile Dealer's Association website, the Kelley Blue Book website, the Edmunds website and other sources provide such information. Some of these sources provide not only a detailed analysis of MSRP but also invoice prices showing what consumers are paying for a particular model of car in a particular geographical region. Price and feature comparison information by car model (both new and used) are readily available, See “How You Can Haggle For That Ride” (Wall Street Journal Apr. 16, 2006). Consumers are far more informed as a result.
Despite many attempts at direct merchandising over the Internet, it appears that few buyers actually want to use the Internet to close deals for “big ticket” items such as cars, trucks, boats and real estate. Most consumers want to “kick the tires” or otherwise inspect the item they are thinking of purchasing. Nevertheless, especially for expensive items, many consumers do a fair amount of research from their Internet-connected computer at home or in a public library before visiting a prospective merchant to make a purchase. The increased information readily available to consumers has had profound impacts on the way merchants and manufacturers market their goods and services, See e.g., “Break Down” (The Economist May 20, 1999).
Generally speaking, every Ford dealership across the country has access to essentially the same pool of new Ford vehicles. Similarly, every Honda dealership has access to essentially the same pool of new Honda vehicles. Most consumers are now aware that dealer cost and local pricing information is now readily available, and would not dream of going into a merchant without first knowing what the merchant is paying for items such as automobiles and what the expected markup will be. As base pricing has become more open and equalized, merchants such as car dealerships have responded to the changing marketplace by competing on aspects of their business other than price and specific products offered. Additional differentiating factors can make the difference between a successful merchant with high sales volumes and a less successful dealer with lower sales volumes.
It might at first appear that essentially the only effective way for dealerships to compete for consumer dollars would be based on location and available inventory. Certainly, these factors are important to consumers. However, it is common especially in medium to large-sized metropolitan areas for car dealerships to attempt to differentiate themselves from their competitors based on a wide array of additional distinguishing characteristics. For example, car dealerships have long competed based on the competence and track record of their service departments. Some car dealerships have excellent service departments that a consumer can benefit from long after he or she purchases a new or used vehicle from the dealership. In addition, however, in a geographical region having a high concentration of Latinos, a car dealership employing Spanish-speaking sales staff may enjoy a significant advantage over dealerships whose sales staff speaks only English. Some car dealerships are able to offer creative financing that allows purchasers with poor or no credit to nevertheless purchase a vehicle. To a young family shopping for a new minivan, it may make a difference whether a car dealership has a playroom or similar facility the kids can play in while the parents shop.
Car dealerships and other merchants are by no means shy about touting their differentiating factors in print, radio and television advertising. Since merchants know many prospective buyers do much of their initial research on the Internet, merchants often also make sure their websites clearly convey such information. Special capabilities such as “children's play room” or “se habla espanol” are therefore often prominently featured on merchant Internet websites, and can also be included in so-called web page “metadata” to help ensure the information is harvested by search engine “bots” and used when users perform Internet searches.
While existing world wide web search engines such as GOOGLE™ and YAHOO® are very powerful and highly useful, they sometimes don't also provide comprehensive useful results efficiently to inexperienced users. For example, a consumer in the Atlanta area might input phrases such as “Ford” and “Roswell” to try to see web pages of Ford dealers in Roswell Ga. Some of the pages obtained by such a search may be the home pages of car dealers in Roswell Ga., but other returned listings may reference car dealerships in Roswell S. Dak. Still other retrieved links might reference individual cars for sale in Roswell. Still other links might reference general merchant listings. Furthermore, such searches might return literally millions of links—far too many for the user to sort through easily.
Recently released so-called “local listing” functionality that lists a variety of merchants in a localized geographical area (e.g., “local results for Ford dealers near Arlington Va.”) along with maps directing consumers to selected business establishments can help. See e.g. “Click Here for the Neighborhood Guide” (Wall Street Journal Apr. 27, 2006). However, despite the power and effectiveness of such commonly available web searching tools, consumers can sometimes feel overwhelmed by the amount of information retrieved by a world wide web search.
In particular, it is sometimes difficult for some consumers to find merchant differentiating factors that are important to them. For example, the young family who may be attracted to a dealership with a play room may need to conduct several web searches putting in alternative terms such as “playroom,” “play room”, “nursery,” “children,” and the like before comprehensive responsive information will be returned. Furthermore, a parent with young children conducting such a search would need to know beforehand that some dealerships have children's playrooms. Requiring a consumer to know what information he or she is looking for before he or she can find it may sound logical, but many consumers are not particularly computer literate and may need a bit more direction.
It is of course possible for consumers interested in visiting a merchant to use online search facilities to locate the websites of nearby merchants and then view the different websites individually to try and match up their consumer preferences with the features offered by the different merchants. While such a research process can provide useful information, it can also be time consuming. Typically, different merchants list information entirely differently on their individual websites. Some merchants have extensive websites, other merchants have more minimal websites and still others may not have any website at all. Furthermore, it is often useful for a consumer to be able to view in-stock inventory as part of the same research process (e.g., to find a close-by merchants offering particular types of financing or other features and to have certain number of items of a certain type in stock to chose from). Therefore, further improvements are desirable.
The illustrative exemplary non-limiting technology herein provides innovative ways for a consumer or other user to compare merchants based on differentiating characteristics such as for example services and/or specialties offered.
In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, information is gathered from merchants by requesting the merchants to fill out online or other information request forms. Such information request forms solicit specific information concerning particular differentiating factors such as services and specialties the merchants offer. For example, merchants may be asked to specify particular languages spoken by their sales staff, to identify particular amenities, to specify particular financing arrangements offered, and other such specialties and/or services. Such information is then inputted into a database in a form that is rapidly searchable.
When a consumer desires to perform a search, he or she is asked by the exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation to input a geographical location such as for example zip code. The consumer may also specify a desired range (egg., “within 25 miles”). The illustrative exemplary non-limiting implementation may then access the merchant database and retrieve listings that comply with the geographical restraint the user requested. In addition, those listings may be further filtered based on the user's specification of additional constraints related to specialties and/or services. For example, the user may specify that he or she only wishes to view listings of dealers or other merchants that offer particular types of financing. By conveniently selecting such options (e.g., in one implementation, by simply checking a box on a web page), the users can be automatically presented with a new, filtered listing that lists only those merchants meeting the predetermined criteria the user has specified.
In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, the financing constraint may be specified by the consumer or other user checking boxes or otherwise selecting particular criteria that match the specialty and/or services or other criteria inputted by the merchants. For example, a consumer who checks a “bad credit” filter criteria will only see listings of merchants who are able to offer financing for purchasers who have bad credit.
In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, information collected from merchants is standardized so that the merchant database can compactly represent and indicate which merchants have certain predetermined differentiating characteristics. For example, in an information collecting process, an online or other form may be completed with merchant information and used to create or augment the database. Such an online or other form can be completed by the merchant, by someone interviewing the merchant, by someone inspecting or visiting the merchant's location, by customer surveys, or otherwise. The online or other form may list a menu of differentiating characteristics which check boxes. In the case of car dealerships for example, the menu can comprise car dealership related differentiating characteristics such as “body shop?” “bad credit financing?” and the like. In the case of restaurants, the menu could include listings such as “non-smoking section?”, “wine list?” and “vegetarian entrees?”. Menu options for hotels could include differentiating characteristics such as “swimming pool?”, “fitness center?” and “restaurant”? Other implementations are possible
In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, the resulting predefined characteristic profiles generated from the information collection process can be standardized with a defined, limited number of distinguishing characteristics. In the resulting merchant database records, each merchant record may have a characteristic-defining field(s) that compactly represents the responses or other data collection corresponding to that particular merchant. In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, the database may be searched based on other criteria altogether (e.g., geographic location and keywords). The retrieved results may then be filtered based on user selection of predetermined differentiating criteria. Users can select multiple predetermined differentiating critieria simultaneously to provide Boolean “AND” filtering capabilities. Consumers can turn selected filtering criteria on and off at will to see more or fewer results.
One exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation calculates the number of retrieved records corresponding to each of the predetermined differentiating criteria available for filtering. The user is presented with a menu showing the predetermined criteria descriptions; the number of retrieved records corresponding to each predetermined criteria; and a check box the user can check to select that predetermined criteria. The user thus can know ahead of time how many listings will be retrieved upon selecting a particular differentiating characteristic. In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, simply checking a box will automatically initiate a filtering and redisplay action, thereby presenting the user with listings filtered as desired.
In addition to filtering based on a menu of predefined criteria, the exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation may also permit the user to input keywords that may be used to search the database. By way of non-limiting example, some of those keywords may be mapped, using intelligent mapping, to predefined criteria representing distinguishing characteristics. The exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation thus may select listings for display based upon filtering, keywords mapped into filtering criteria, generalized keyword searching, or any combination thereof.
One exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation presents an easy-to-use and easy-to-navigate user interface which allows a user to rapidly and efficiently search to obtain information about merchant offerings. In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, searching is based at least in part on fixed fields with relatively few, relatively uniform options providing efficient searching of relevant information without the user needing to guess what kind of search terms to input. Such searches can be performed against a structured database and returned very rapidly. Database contents can be obtained through relationship information supplied by the merchants in the course of listing vehicles on a web-based listing service or by any other convenient method including but not limited to surveys, inspection, or other commonly used data collection techniques. Optimally efficient geographical-location services can be combined with a search for other differentiating factors important to consumers (e.g., financing options, stock of goods on hand, foreign language capabilities, and the like) to provide accurate and helpful search results without requiring the consumer to be an expert in computer searching.
In one particular exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation relating to car dealerships, a web page or other presentation may offer a “find your dealer” function that allows users to search for dealers with various differentiating characteristics including for example “rebates and incentives,” “multi-lingual staff,” “service centers,” and “other services and specialities.” Upon selecting such a “find your dealer” function, a user may be presented with a subsequent input screen allowing the user to input one or more keywords (e.g., for example, “financing,” “specials” and “service”), as well as a zip code or other geographical locator. In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, the user may be asked to also insert a distance (e.g., within 25 miles, within 50 miles, within 10 miles), In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, the server may perform a keyword database search against all listed dealers who fall within the geographic qualification the user specifies. As one example, the search facility can attempt to locate all merchants within a certain mile radius from the user's zip code that have the certain characteristics the user specifies in the keyword field.
In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, the user may be encouraged to enter keywords that describe what the user wants most from a dealership (e.g., dealership name, dealership features such as financing deals, special offers, loaner cars, shuttle services, body shops, and more). In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, the keyword search fields may “AND” all keywords the user supplies to provide a Boolean “AND” function. By way of non-limiting example, the user may enter a string of words and the exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation will search for the combination of words (or, in one example implementation, exact words or phrases if the string is in quotation marks). Such retrieved results can be further filtered based on additional preset criteria.
In one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, the listing page resulting from a search may allow the user to “change your results” by specifying a subset of the retrieved listings based on “services and specialities.” For example, the user may specify:                financing characteristics (e.g., “good credit,” “bad credit” or “no credit”)        “special offers” such as new car specials, used car specials, dealer specials, or manufacturer rebates and incentives, other        service features such as service center, factory authorized service center, body shop, customization, detailing, parts and accessories, concierge, deliver options, courtesy shuffle, loaner cars, rental cars, other        vehicle inventory (e.g., new, used, certified, classic/collector, conversion vans, handicapped-equipped, hybrid, commercial/fleet, other        languages spoken (erg., American Sign Language, Korean, French, German, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, Vietnamese, other)        amenities such as for example, business center, children's play area, comfortable waiting area, handicapped accessible, Internet access, other        otherOther features and advantages provided by illustrative non-limiting implementations include, by way of example only and not by limitation:        Find Your Dealer: Empower the dealer to tell his story        Visual Enhancements: Help the consumer fall in love with the car        Dealer Keyword Search Tool suggests misspellings and understands synonyms (e.g., Chevy=Chevrolet, P/B=power brakes) based on a dictionary of aliases        Dealers are returned, sorted by distance; can also be sorted by other criteria such as Number of Services and Specialties or alphabetically by dealer name        Consumer Selection of Services and Specialties: Numbers let consumers know how many dealers have that specific Service or Specialty; Numbers update with each selection to protect consumer from getting a frustrating “no results found” response        Exemplary merchant listings may include link to Dealer Detail Page, dealer Photo, contact Information and Call Tracking or Click for Number, Prominent Service and Specialty, Number of Services and Specialties (Click to expand); clicking on the ‘View’ link expands the listing        Dealer Detail page including for example dealer name; dealer address and map link; dealer logo; email popup link; secure credit application link; call/contact tracking number; dealer photo        View Inventory Page indicates total inventory, “view inventor” inview/DDA link; inventory statistics; inventory-related services and specialties display; and real time graph of dealer inventory by body style (e.g., convertible, coupe SUV, sedan, truck, van, wagon etc.)        Services and Specialties listed in an easy to read fashion        Dealer can change Services and Specialties anytime online        Languages spoken can be shown in native script        